


Hold My Hand

by ScarletArcher



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Crushes, Fluff and Angst, Friendship/Love, M/M, Mutual Pining, Steelatom - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-12
Updated: 2017-12-12
Packaged: 2019-02-13 17:09:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,356
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12988599
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ScarletArcher/pseuds/ScarletArcher
Summary: “She always said she liked my inventions.”The Dominator aberration has been cleared up, but the adventure’s left Ray with more baggage than he would have liked. Nate’s the only one who notices, and is there to provide a sturdy, steely shoulder for his best friend to talk to. One thing soon leads to another, and things quickly change between them.





	Hold My Hand

**Author's Note:**

> Just a short Steelatom drabble I knocked up, cos I just had to write about these loveable idiots. Unbeta-ed, so any mistakes are my own. 
> 
> This is a Ray/Nate headcanon scene that steered out of canonity from Legends of Tomorrow Season 3 episode 4 - Phone Home.
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

_"He would rather than spend his time with his animals and movies or… weird inventions!”_

Ray sighed heavily, swinging his char in circles aimlessly. The aberration had been dealt with, and the Dominators were on their way home — probably to go and conquer someplace else — but the tryst back into his personal past had left him with more baggage than he would have liked. Never mind the revelation that Gus and Ty were bullies, which he should have seen coming, but his mum’s remarks.

There was a small cough. Ray swung his chair around to find Nate leaning casually against the wall by his lab entrance, a soft smile on his face. “Hey, buddy.”

“Oh.” Ray was surprised to say the least. He had left Nate, and the rest of the Legends, in the kitchen. “Hey. What are you doing here?”

“You weren’t in the kitchen with the rest of us. So I thought I’d find you here.”

“Oh! Yeah… I wasn’t hungry.”

“Mick ate your candy, anyways, so if you were hungry, you’d be starving.”

“Technically, I could just get something from the kitchen, but yeah!” Ray said brightly. “No candy for me. Oh well.” He paused. “Not even one?”

Nate shrugged. “I tried, man, but it’s Mick! He’d… burn my hand off or something and then just grunt like it’s no big deal.”

“You were meant to keep him away from me. Well, me-me… young me.”

“We did!”

“He stole Gus and Ty’s allowance in front of me — young me! What if that pushes me to keep being a criminal?” Ray stressed. “I could never live with myself.”

“Don’t go all Skywalker on me now, Ray,” Nate interjected. “And anyway, why are you sitting in here alone anyway?”

Ray’s smile waned slightly. “Oh, that.”

“Yeah, that.” Nate pushed himself off the wall and plopped down on the table next to his friend. Ray winced when he accidentally sat on a particularly sharp object and flew into the air with a string of curse words, before deciding to pull a swivel chair further in the room towards his friend, and plopped down on it. He glared pointedly in Ray’s direction. “Ever heard of cleaning up?”

“I was busy!” Ray said feebly.

“Yeah, brooding,” Nate said. Ray tried to refute the claim, but the historian continued. “Come on, then. What are you doing in here all by yourself? Is it because of that insignificant thing I did?”

“You made out with my mum,” Ray spluttered incredulously. “I’d hardly call that insignificant!”

Nate shrugged unabashedly. “It was the eighties, man!”

“Well, no. It wasn’t because of that.”

“Then what?”

Ray smiled ruefully. He tapped his fingers together, trying to articulate his racing thoughts into comprehensible sentences. He was feeling a whirlwind of emotions. Elation, compassion, love, anger, bitterness… sadness, and he didn’t know how to express himself, so he kept quiet.

“Oh,” Nate said, quietly.

“Oh?” Ray repeated, glancing over at him. Nate’s expression was solemn.

“It’s what your mum said that’s bothering you, isn’t it?”

Ray winced. There it was. His expression tightened, and he nodded briefly. “I… didn’t think you were listening to me,” Ray admitted.

“Hey, ‘course I was,” Nate said softly. He squeezed Ray’s shoulder a reassuring squeeze. “I’m always listening to you.”

“Thanks.” A small smile tugged at the corners of Ray’s lips. The admission reassured him and, oddly enough, filled him with a sense of calm.

“You wanna talk about it?”

“No. No, it’s fine.”

“You sure?” Nate persisted.

“No,” Ray sighed, and held up his hand hopefully. “Hold my hand?”

Nate dramatically rolled his eyes, but moved his hand from Ray’s shoulder — Ray hadn’t realised that it was still lingering there — and joined their hands together. His blue eyes held a gentle, but inquisitive spark, and he smiled reassuringly.

Ray found that the words tumbled out his mouth the moment he glanced at his friend. “It’s just that my inventions mean a lot to me. You saw what it was like, I was great at school — I was exceptional — but… I was also alone. I didn’t have Gumball. I didn’t have anyone. I only had my mum, who loved my inventions, or so I thought.” He patted his pocket with his free hand, where his ATOM suit was safely stored. “This technology has been my life since 2014. It’s like I told you, I almost died to make it operational. I started this for... Anna.”

“Anna?”

Ray winced. Even though his fiancée was long gone, it still hurt to think about her. He quickly returned to the topic at hand, and ignored Nate’s question. “And I thought my mum would be proud of me for becoming a hero, and now that I know she probably doesn’t, well… makes me think if I’m really needed.”

“Hey, no, Ray,” Nate interrupted, squeezing his hand until he held Ray’s attention. “Of course you’re needed. You’ve saved us countless times. We’d all be dead without you! You’re _important,"_ he stressed. “And you always have been.”

Ray smiled self-deprecatingly. “Well, yeah, but I’m sure you’d have managed without me.”

“No. You’re important. To the team. And you’re important to me.” Nate reaffirmed. “This ship needs you. They need you…,” he entwined their fingers together. The tender gesture surprised Ray, and he looked up at Natw, only to be taken aback by the passionate gleam in his eyes. “ _I_ need you.”

The declaration struck a chord within Ray. He squeezed Nate’s hand, and without paying much thought to it, found himself leaning forward. Nate’s lips parted, and he slowly leaned forward as well. Ray’s eyes fluttered shut, his stomach exploding with nervous butterflies and anticipation, when —”

_"Mr. Heywood?"_

Gideon’s rumbling voice startled the pair apart, their eyes comically wide. “Yes, Gideon?” Nate’s hoarse voice cracked, and he cleared it in embarrassment.

Gideon sounded amused. _"Captain Lance and Ms. Jiwe would like to see you in the library. They want to learn more about your… ahem… encounter with the Dominator Queen. For the fact files."_

“We don’t have fact files, Gideon.”

_"We do now."_

_"Great,"_ Nate drawled sarcastically. He muttered something under his breath, but it was so quiet that Ray didn’t quite catch it. It sounded like he had said ‘convenient’”. Nate looked over at him, and coughed. “Well, I’d better go see what they want.”

“Yeah. Don’t want to get on the wrong side of Sara,” Ray said with a laugh, though he was unable to squash his disappointment. Nate lingered, unsure, before he used his free hand to grip the back of Ray’s head in a spontaneous flurry and pulled him forward for a kiss. It was sweet, chaste, and ended too soon. By the time Ray had processed it had stopped, Nate was already by the door. He stared at the wall, pleasantly surprised, when Nate spoke again.

“Hey, Ray?”

“Yeah?” Ray coughed quickly to disguise his hoarse voice.

“Don’t worry about what your mum said.” He clicked his fingers in his direction with a grin. “Remember, positive thinking.”

“Yeah, you’re right — hang on.” Ray frowned in bemusement. “How do you know about that? You weren’t there when I told Zari.”

“Yeah, but she was talking about it while we were eating the candy,” Nate explained with a smile. “See? I do listen.”

“Wow.” Ray beamed in happiness, waving at Nate awkwardly as he left to endure the teasing harassment from Sara and Amaya. His mind replayed the kiss. He touched his lips, and his grin widened even more.

Ray soon left his lab and found Zari in the control room. One thing led to another, and suddenly they were both inexplicably lounging on the sofa with a bowl of popcorn, watching _'Singing in the Rain.'_ Nate soon joined them, collapsing in the middle of the couch. He shot a dopey smile in Ray’s smile, which he reciprocated.

Zari watched the musical with barely concealed contempt. If she noticed the way Nate and Ray entwined their fingers over the popcorn bowl, or Nate throwing an arm around Ray’s shoulder to pull him closer and nuzzle his neck adoringly, she didn’t comment on it.


End file.
